Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba aka MK and President Museveni are burning with fury over the arrest and continued detention of Col. Shaban Bantariza, the Deputy Uganda Media Centre Director. The rage stems from the swift arrest of Bantariza over alleged misappropriation of Kyankwanzi based National Leadership Institute (NALI) money amounting to close to Shs400m. The Colonel, whose stance at the Uganda Media Centre is barely two months, was hastily picked, arrested, charged with fraud and since remanded at Kololo based Officers Mess. Lying in these pages is a story of how Bantariza claimed the development is a product of intrigue. “I am being framed,” before his appearance in the Makindye based Court-martial. President Museveni had reluctantly told the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Gen. Katumba Wamala to “sort out the [Bantariza] issue” but he believed that the CDF would read between lines and save him (Museveni) the embarrassment of arresting an officer he had just recalled from ‘Katebe.’ upon the arrest, Brig. Muhoozi confronted his Commander in Chief (CiC) and ‘tasked’ him to explain why he sent him to talk to Bantariza about the appointment yet he had intentions of arresting him. “This is embarrassing Sir. This is an old case which could have been solved before reappointing him [Bantariza] but now it looks like a planned game,” sources close to the powers that be quoted Muhoozi as telling his boss. The equally enraged Museveni explained to Muhoozi how he had been called by the CDF(Katumba) about the matter and he told him to “sort it out” but never gave the arrest orders. He continued that actually, he had long written to the army authority to retire Bantariza whom, he is said to have other private assignments for. Muhoozi is also known to have told the President, that UPDF shouldn’t have been a complainant in a matter where, it’s State House’ money being queried. And in this case, the court-martial wouldn’t be in the picture. For starters, NALI is a government and not a military facility and hence anyone accused of swindling its Money should be tried in a civil court. And to mend fences with Bantariza, President Museveni ordered he instead be detained at the Officers Mess and not Makindye military cells as would be the case for a remanded officer.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 11:54:58 +0000
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